Sun. Aug. 21, 2022 – finishing up, then home

By on August 21st, 2022 in Random Stuff

But first, hot and humid.   Less hot than previously, still plenty humid.

Did a ton of hard work yesterday, taking advantage of the lower temp and overcast sky.  Most of the detail is in last night’s comments.

Today I need to locate the underground utilities and mark them.  I need to locate the trench for the new gas line too.  The elec-chickens are going to trench it for me at time and materials while they are here with the machine.   I also got 70ft of pex ready for them to put in the trench with the service drop.  It’s cheaper than just about any other choice and all I need is a conduit to pull coax or net cable through if that ever becomes available.   I learned on the job that it was a lot cheaper to put a couple of cat 5s in the trench or conduit to future proof an install.   The pex is just a buried path from the pole to the house, just in case….

I also helped the neighbor move a stone countertop into is place.  They are working on it same as us.   He let me run an extension cord from his garage to mine so I can have some backup for the freezers and fridges when the electricians are doing the switchover.  This will save my wife from having to deal with the gennie, unless there is some other issue.  BTW, and inch and a half thick slab of countertop is HEAVY.

Between that, the sledgehammer work, and all the other lifting and carrying, not to mention shoveling, that I did, I might have to take some Tylenol today.  I try to avoid it, so I don’t over do it when I’m already hurting, but pain killers and anesthetic are the wonders of the modern world.  It would be silly to not use them if needed.

After all, grid is still up and civilization hasn’t cratered yet…

But if it does, you’ll be glad you have big stacks!

 

nick

54 Comments and discussion on "Sun. Aug. 21, 2022 – finishing up, then home"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    @Greg, I’ve probably installed a half-dozen China fans over the past few years and never had any wobble problems. Any chance yours was damaged while it transit? Hunter is Home Depot’s brand, correct?

    The wobble is very slight, and Hunter includes a kit to correct minor issues. My guess is that some movement is intrinsic to ceiling fans, particularly since the materials are lighter than the old days. Big Ass Fans probably has some correction inside the mechanism since they use aerospace-grade materials and cost a lot more.

    When the Big Ass Fan in my home office starts, there are a couple of clicks and whirrs deep inside the motor as the blades start turning.

    Hunter is not Home Depot’s brand, but the big box stores’ wholesale terms gutted the company over the last 25 years, including driving all of the company’s manufacturing overseas. Some Hunter fans you see at Home Depot and Lowes marked “exclusives” are models forced on the company by the stores to appeal to bargain hunters which drove the growth of both chains.

    I understand the mentality. My father-in-law was like that. He bragged about filling a house with $79 fans about 20 years ago in Dallas when he helped some friends move. No word on how many of those still run, but that wasn’t the point. It is a type of “Show Ya” personality.

    “$300 (then) for a Hunter Original fan? Show ya.”

  2. Greg Norton says:

    @Greg, I’ve probably installed a half-dozen China fans over the past few years and never had any wobble problems.

    One reason I opted to consult the braintrust is that Hunter seems to realize they have some manufacturing tolerance issues, and the blade arms on the Original are numbered: T1, T3, T3, T5, T5. 

    I can’t find any material referencing what the numbers mean, but my guess is that they are part of diagnosing and correcting wobble within manufacturing tolerances.

    I’ll call the company on Monday, but that means pushing this project into next weekend.

    I don’t lack for things to do, particularly work work. Our trip isn’t the only reason my time here has been limited for the last month.

  3. lynn says:

    80 F already.  Gonna be a hot one until we get a frogchoaker downpour. 

  4. lynn says:

    The grid is gonna stay up but, you ain’t gonna be able to afford the electricity after all these new global warming taxes.  The new methane tax is $900 / ton.

    The EPA is flying helicopters all over Permian Basin looking for methane leaks right now. That ain’t free and us burning a lot of jet fuel. But it is for the good of the country.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    The grid is gonna stay up but, you ain’t gonna be able to afford the electricity after all these new global warming taxes.  The new methane tax is $900 / ton.

    The Old School Marm, Chief Justice Roberts, has a point about “foolish” political choices and not wanting the court to be held to fix poor decisions on the part of the voters. We are still paying for Obama being the “cool” choice 14 years ago.

    I think even Roberts is surprised that people accepted his rewritten Obamacare without doing something at the ballot box that Fall.

  6. Ray Thompson says:

    Testing on the “name I cannot mention” mobile hotspot.

    I have uncovered several problems that should have been obvious to the people developing the project. A factory reset never presents a language selection screen on the device screen. When connected USB-C to USB-C and using the GUI a language selection will appear for 3 seconds then move on to the next screen. No chance to select the language. Do those clods even do these basic steps when testing?

    In my opinion the device firmware still has enough problems that it is not ready for release. Hopefully there will be another release of the firmware during the beta process.

    The last device I tested for the company was three months ago. That device has yet to be released into the wild.

  7. Alan says:

    >> Today I need to locate the underground utilities and mark them.

    Isn’t this a job for 811?

  8. Greg Norton says:

    I have uncovered several problems that should have been obvious to the people developing the project. A factory reset never presents a language selection screen on the device screen. When connected USB-C to USB-C and using the GUI a language selection will appear for 3 seconds then move on to the next screen. No chance to select the language. Do those clods even do these basic steps when testing?

    Not all USB-C is created equal in my experience. Charging pretty much works across chipsets, but the communication is often a cr*pshoot.

    HDMI on a USB-C dock from my current employer does not play well connected to new Apple Silicon laptops – granted Apple is public enemy #1 in the building so it isn’t totally surprising —  but the dock does output video from my MacBook Pro through the DisplayPort with an HDMI adapter feeding the monitor input. Go figure.

    I don’t use the dock much since my Plugable brand equivalent seems to work with any laptop, but my employer’s costs twice what I paid for my personal choice buying new.

    Interestingly, I was told that the dock was not a tracked company asset even though it is worth more at retail price than the monitor I turned in with an asset tag needing to be deregistered from my name.

    I will still make sure IT notes that I turned in the dock when I exit the company. I’ll even turn in the backpack and other swag.

  9. Alan says:

    >> In my opinion the device firmware still has enough problems that it is not ready for release. Hopefully there will be another release of the firmware during the beta process.

    Can’t ignore the company ‘bean counters’ desire to adhere to “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” 

  10. Ray Thompson says:

    The USB-C connection in this case is treated as a data connection, a sort of Ethernet replacement. Works well connecting to the device. Never a problem. The problem is the firmware startup from a factory state.

    There is never a chance to select the language. When using the device screen the choice is never offered. When using the USB-C and Web GUI, the option only stays for a few seconds. That requires HTML Javascript code to auto submit the form. Or it may be an issue with Safari not liking something and moving on, which seems odd.

    The lack of selection on the device screen indicates to me it is a problem in the firmware. I have reported it twice, their solution was flush the cache. Been there, done that. I finally recorded a video and sent that to the beta administrator.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    The USB-C connection in this case is treated as a data connection, a sort of Ethernet replacement. Works well connecting to the device. Never a problem. The problem is the firmware startup from a factory state.

    Probably RNDIS. That works most of the time from Windows, but anyone with a BeagleBone Black can tell you it isn’t 100%. 

    Good God, now that I think about it, their embedded system might well be a modified BBB. I have a book in the figurative pile around here about building embedded security toys like routers using BeagleBone hardware as the basis. 

    The USB-C problem might be because they put a bridge chip between the port on the back of the device and the USB nic on the embedded CPU (guessing). That’s a lot of RF noise that is getting fudged/ignored.

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    Probably RNDIS. That works most of the time from Windows

    I am using my MacBook Air exclusively for testing. Why? I don’t know. Just me being strange[r]. Even without being connected to a computer the device never presents a language selection screen. I have also sent the beta coordinator a video of that startup process.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    I am using my MacBook Air exclusively for testing. Why? I don’t know. Just me being strange[r]. Even without being connected to a computer the device never presents a language selection screen. I have also sent the beta coordinator a video of that startup process.

    Thunderbolt might be another culprit. The bridge chip on the router might be tagged as USB-C but is really some failed leftover Thunderbolt silicon from someone.

    Lots of failed Thunderbolt silicon is out there.

  14. drwilliams says:

    Texas migrant buses overwhelm New York, Washington D.C.

    Driving the news: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that the state has sent more than 7,000 migrants to Washington since April and another 900 to New York since Aug. 5 as a part of Operation Lone Star.

    “Before we began busing migrants to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all the chaos and problems that come with it,” Abbott said in a statement this week. “Now, the rest of America can understand exactly what is going on.”

    https://www.axios.com/2022/08/20/texas-migrants-new-york-washington-dc

    Sanctuary cities choke at accepting tiny percentage of total illegal invasion force.

    Where can I contribute to the transportation to Washington and NYC?

    8
    1
  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    Morning has arrived, and with it a list of stuff to do.   But first, drugs.  I am sore, and undercaffinated.  And ate twice my normal breakfast.

    re: the dog.   He seems to have recovered.  His poops are normal.  He’s running around, sniffing all the things, and rolling in something as hard as he can.  It’s astounding how much energy he can put into smearing himself against the ground….

    If he gets sick at home, all his food and treats will get thrown out.   We have him on the same brands up here, but they are from new bags.  I’m also going to do a real good look around to see if he’s into something at the house.  He slept thru the night twice now without an issue.   I think he’s better.

    89F and sunny here, not a cool day.  There is a nice breeze off the lake.   When it blows.

    WRT 811-  contractor’s responsibility.  I’m doing the stuff I know, that was done decades ago.  Sprinklers, lp gas line, water main.    The map shows one pipeline thru the neighborhood and it’s far from me.

    As far as I can tell, there aren’t any actual underground utilities except water, other than homeowner adds.

    n

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    And the power went out.  Down fur 1 ½ hour so far. Map says everyone else is up. Extension cord from neighbor might be needed today…

    Sitting in my car at the top of the hill to get signal.  BigBig UPS just moved up the list.

    N

  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    Power co bucket truck just drove right past me.

    N

  18. Rick H says:

    @Nick – I don’t recall if your neighbor has a generator – if not, I would think that any power outage at your BOL would also affect him.

    Of course, the long extension cord will help during your electrical work, although an unopened freezer should keep things cold/frozen for 48 hours if full. 

    And I suspect that the extension cord you are using is heavy duty gauge so it doesn’t overheat or fail to provide enough current to the freezer . 

  19. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    DrWilliams asks:

    Where can I contribute to the transportation to Washington and NYC?

    Governor Abbot is accepting contributions….

  20. Ray Thompson says:

    Thunderbolt might be another culprit. The bridge chip on the router might be tagged as USB-C but is really some failed leftover Thunderbolt silicon from someone.

    Same thing happens on my Microsoft Surface Laptop. USB-C to USB-C.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    Same thing happens on my Microsoft Surface Laptop. USB-C to USB-C.

    I thought the Surface had Thunderbolt.

    Either way, it doesn’t sound like the router is ready for prime time. 

  22. lynn says:

    “Rollback” by Robert J. Sawyer
       https://www.amazon.com/Rollback-Novel-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/076533240X?tag=ttgnet-20/

    A science fiction novel, no prequel or sequel. I bought the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Tor in 2012. This is about the dozenth Robert Sawyer book that I have read and I have enjoyed them all.

    In 2010, Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded an alien radio message from eighteen light years away from Earth. In 2048, the aliens replied to our reply to their message. But their reply was encrypted and Dr. Sarah Halifax is 86 years old. A SETI benefactor paid the eight billion dollars each to rollback Sarah and her husband Don to 25 years of age so she could be around to decode the message and reply to future messages. But Sarah’s age rollback failed.

    The author has a website at:
       https://sfwriter.com/

    My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars (93 reviews)

  23. Greg Norton says:

    Thanks. Found it:

    Be sure to send a few bucks to Florida to support their effort. Once again, Abbott was drafting behind DeSantis on the issue.

    Every single mainstream newsroom in Florida would still prefer to have the meth head living in the Governors Mansion. They knew about the meth and male hookers four years ago but wanted to “make history”.

  24. lynn says:

    @Kenneth C Mitchell

    Thanks. Found it:

    https://feepay.txapps.texas.gov/oog/border-transportation-funding/

    Also you can donate at:

        https://www.gregabbott.com/

  25. lynn says:

    “Biden Inflation Act Provides the EPA New Weapons to Pursue their Climate Change Jihad”

       https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/20/biden-inflation-act-provides-the-epa-new-weapons-to-pursue-their-climate-change-jihad/

    “Think Gasoline is expensive now? From 2024, US Oil and gas companies will face impossible operating conditions, with the US EPA promising to impose a $900 / ton methane release fee, rising to $1500 per ton by 2026.”

  26. paul says:

    Credit cards, I’m like “no annual fee” is a big plus.  I had an AMEX green waaaay back when that was $45 a year.   So I’m Joe Cool with my AMEX card and no one gave a shit. Not even a fart. 

    The tires went on a Capitol One card that gives 1.5% back.

    My Discover card gives 1%.  All of the time.  Mom’s Discover card gave 1% but on her anniversary date it reset to zero.   She then had to spend like $1800 before she started to get 1%.  Getting that info from Discover was like pulling teeth. 

    Now let’s rag on Taco Bell.

    They don’t sell (in Marble Falls, anyway) totsadas any more.  However you spell it.  A flat crispy tortilla smeared with refried beans (aka Frito Bean Dip) topped with taco stuff like lettuce and cheese and a few pieces of tomato.  Heck, that’s a reason to go there.

    One tostada and a couple of tacos for lunch and I’m good for the rest of the day. 

    In high school, what Taco Bell calls a tostada was called a chaluapa.  So good!   Tostadas were pretty much like home made Doritos.  Taco Bell’s chalupa is a fried flour tortillia… folded into a taco shell.  Some kind of California thing to use up stale flour tortillas?   Hard pass.

    For the money I can make better tacos than Taco Bell.  Get the HEB corn taco shells….  they are in the bread aisle.

    It rained a bit today.  Just enough to get the humidity to “all your joints stick” level.  Might rain some more tonight.  Time will tell.
     

    Well.  Grump grump grump.  

     🙂 

  27. Greg Norton says:

    They don’t sell (in Marble Falls, anyway) totsadas any more.  However you spell it.  A flat crispy tortilla smeared with refried beans (aka Frito Bean Dip) topped with taco stuff like lettuce and cheese and a few pieces of tomato.  Heck, that’s a reason to go there.

    I thought they were working on a far more lethal tostada with a giant Cheez-It in place of the tortilla.

    Randy Mantooth is going to come out of retirement to man the paddles in the commercial.

    “Clear!”

  28. Ray Thompson says:

    the US EPA promising to impose a $900 / ton methane release fee, rising to $1500 per ton by 2026.

    Does that also apply to, ahem, personal emissions? I could be in danger of being a super fund site. After eating at Taco Bell.

  29. drwilliams says:

    Isn’t there a National Taco Day?

    Be great timing for a Million Man March on the mall after breakfast at Taco Bell.

    EPA could fly their helicopters overhead and go nuts.

  30. JimB says:

    Is it possible to donate anonymously to TX, NM, or FL, strictly to bus migrants to DC, NYC, Martha’s Vineyard, and other prog strongholds? Asking for friends. Srsly.

    I looked at both TX sites, and they wanted names, etc. No go.

    What is the status of mailing cash these days? Some years ago, I heard about people using physical proxies to hide locations. None of this would probably work anymore, or would it?

  31. Ray Thompson says:

    EPA could fly their helicopters overhead and go nuts.

    Can they get enough lift in a methane cloud?

  32. nick flandrey says:

    Pleasant drive home.  Only 88F here.

    So sore!  Moving like an old man.

    n

  33. Alan says:

    >> “Think Gasoline is expensive now? From 2024, US Oil and gas companies will face impossible operating conditions, with the US EPA promising to impose a $900 / ton methane release fee, rising to $1500 per ton by 2026.”

    Does anything in the Inflation Reduction Act start immediately? Or is it all years in the future? 

  34. nick flandrey says:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-08-20/daughter-putin-adviser-repotedly-killed-car-explosion 

    Now they are killing family members.   Assassination, what’s old is new again.

    n

  35. Rick H says:

    Now they are killing family members.   Assassination, what’s old is new again.

    I suspect they (whoever ‘they’ are) were aiming at the father. According to one report I read, he decided to take a different car at the last minute.

    Plus, any number of conspiracy theories are floating out there.

  36. drwilliams says:

    “Now they are killing family members.”

    1. She was driving her father’s car.
    2. She is/was a Nazi P.O.S. herself
  37. drwilliams says:

    @JimB

    Don’t know if USPS Money Orders have changed, but used to be that you bought one and filled in the to/from yourself.

  38. lynn says:

    >> “Think Gasoline is expensive now? From 2024, US Oil and gas companies will face impossible operating conditions, with the US EPA promising to impose a $900 / ton methane release fee, rising to $1500 per ton by 2026.”

    Does anything in the Inflation Reduction Act start immediately? Or is it all years in the future? 

    I am just surprised that they did not pass a CO2 tax while they were at it.

  39. nick flandrey says:

    Yup, car swap.

    Russian state investigators said Darya Dugina, daughter of idealogue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in on Saturday evening.

    The daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist and ally of President Vladimir Putin who argued Russia should absorb Ukraine has been killed in a suspected car bomb attack.

    Russian state investigators said Darya Dugina, daughter of idealogue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in on Saturday evening.

    State news agency TASS quoted Andrei Krasnov, who knew Ms Dugina, as saying the vehicle belonged to her father and he was probably the intended target.

    Father and daughter had been attending a festival outside Moscow and Ms Dugin had decided to switch cars at the last minute, Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.

    TV footage accompanying the statement showed investigators collecting debris and fragments from the site of the explosion.

    –that would have been the Ukes doing the bombing, right?

    n

  40. drwilliams says:

    –that would have been the Ukes doing the bombing, right?

    or it makes a good cover story.

  41. EdH says:

    Well, apparently I was exposed to a family member who has tested positive for covid, and need to self quarantine for 5 days or so. 

    So…my usual life style.

  42. nick flandrey says:

    So…my usual life style.  

    –only now no one can b!tch at you for it…

    n

  43. Alan says:

    >> Is it possible to donate anonymously to TX, NM, or FL, strictly to bus migrants to DC, NYC, Martha’s Vineyard, and other prog strongholds? Asking for friends. Srsly.

    Theoretically, if a person were to send cash to a governmental agency and not to a campaign address, it should be accepted. And while you’re not supposed to send cash through the mail, a friend overheard two people talking and one guy said to the other that people send cash through the mail all the time. Again, all theoretical. 

  44. nick flandrey says:

    I guess I missed this a couple of days ago….

    https://apnews.com/article/shootings-alabama-arrests-georgia-auburn-6b28486d7b763cf53fdea5036e1aecbd 

    Police: Suspect in I-85 shootings had 2,000 rounds of ammo

    AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Police who arrested a man with an arsenal of weapons in his car are trying to determine a motive for three seemingly random shootings along Interstate 85 in Alabama and Georgia, including one that critically wounded another motorist.

    –could be that, based on the photo, the perp doesn’t fit a particular narrative common across media outlets…

    You’d think a sniper shooting up the interstate would make more of a splash.

    n

  45. lynn says:

    “Rice University Prof: Biden’s $433 Billion Incentives for Clean Energy aren’t Enough”

        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/21/rice-university-prof-bidens-433-billion-incentives-for-clean-energy-arent-enough/

    “Does anyone even pretend anymore that Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” has anything to do with inflation?”

    What a bunch of elitists !  This is all about building a utopia.  If a few people get hurt on the way, oh well.  If a lot of people get hurt, too bad.

  46. Nick Flandrey says:

    Earlier, Werner Luginbuhl, the head of Switzerland’s electricity regulator ElCom, complained that electricity was being used “completely thoughtlessly,” and urged citizens to stock up on candles and firewood due to possible power outages in the country this winter.

    – isn’t that the mark of modern civilization, that you can use electricity without giving it a lot of thought?  I tried to re-read the Doc Savage novels, but every single time they enter a room and turn on an electric light, it gets mentioned… because electricity wasn’t commonplace, or available ‘thoughtlessly’.   I ended up not able to read the stories because it was just too alien.  (the relentless atomic age, ‘the power of the atom will save us’ was hard to get past too.)

    Western civilization was nice while it lasted.

    n

  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    If a few people get hurt on the way, oh well.  If a lot of people get hurt, too bad.

    – they never figure that the few getting hurt will be themselves, as the rope tightens around their necks, or as Madame Guillotine (or the more modern MorBark 2000 wood chipper) kisses them gently.

    That usually doesn’t happen until  a lot of people feel the pain of empty bellies, and the noise of a gunshot to the back of their head.

    I hope we don’t go that far, and that their sexual deviance ends up killing them painfully and slowly instead.

    n

  48. lynn says:

    – they never figure that the few getting hurt will be themselves, as the rope tightens around their necks, or as Madame Guillotine (or the more modern MorBark 2000 wood chipper) kisses them gently.

    Matt Bracken: What I Saw At The Coup

        https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/bracken-what-i-saw-at-the-coup.74830/

  49. Alan says:

    >> Police: Suspect in I-85 shootings had 2,000 rounds of ammo

    Just 2,000? You call that stacking?

  50. Greg Norton says:

    What a bunch of elitists !  This is all about building a utopia.  If a few people get hurt on the way, oh well.  If a lot of people get hurt, too bad.

    Elitists? They’re Marxists. They’ve fooled the masses into thinking that everyone will have Jesus Trucks in order to advance the agenda.

    Talking up how your research is related to “green” energy is also a fast way to Federal Government grants.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    Yeah, 2000 rounds is nothing.   Fits in a shoebox.

    The rifles and the fact he was shooting AT people is the relevant thing.     

    n

Comments are closed.